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Liner Notes

It was on a cold and snowy night in Vail Colorado that I first heard the music of Hans Zimmer. In the Village Crossroads Theatre I watched as the credits began for Rain Man. I was immediately struck by the originality and special brilliance of the score. The African voices soared as they established the theme for Raymond and his Autistic brother. I knew then that this was a composer with whom I wanted to work.

On my next film Bird on a Wire, and subsequently on Point of No Return and now on Drop Zone I have had the great pleasure of a creative partnership with Hans.

To truly appreciate his talent one should see a movie in rough cut before Hans has worked his magic. Only then is it possible to hear the oceanic chasm between the dream and the reality. Hans is a true movie lover. He does not compose music for its own sake, but only as it works with and for the movie. This lack of ego, this willingness to allow the movie to guide his inspiration, is what lifts his movies to new heights.

I have just come from New York City where we have played Drop Zone for the first time to "the Media". I can now compare it to the times where we have played it for test audiences with a temporary Zimmer score kluged from scores for other films. The difference is phenomenal! Whereas it played fairly well before, now it plays GREAT! The synthesized score with added live guitars and voices lifts the movie to new levels of entertainment. For a MovieMaker, to hear the audience go berserk is not just a great pleasure, it is the fulfillment of a dream! Before, it was a fun movie. Now, it's a great ride!

Thank you Hans.

The new DTS technology allows us to bring to the theatre all the frequency response that was previously only available on CDs or on highly expensive 6 track 70 millimeter prints. Here Hans utilizes the whole sound spectrum. Often mere realistic sound effects will not do the job so he digitizes them into the synthesizers, sampling and augmenting to powerful extremes. When we first ran Drop Zone with his score in the state of the art Paramount Studio theatre the music shook the seats off their mountings. Seat belts may be required in the future. When playing this CD don't be shy, play it big, play it LOUD! Make your neighbors call the cops.
— John Badham, November 1994

Recording Credits

Music Composed, Produced, Arranged, Orchestrated & Played by Hans Zimmer